Wrapped rolled surgical dressing



Filed March 13, 1955 Patented June 15, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WRAPPED ROLLED SURGICAL DRESSING Application March 13, 1935, Serial No. 10,929

1 Claim.

The object of the invention is to provide an inexpensive protective wrapper for rolled dressings and of such nature that the seal may be instantly ruptured without soiling the ends of the roll.

Rolled surgical gauze or other fabric dressings, in various widths and lengths, are necessary adjuncts of first-aid or emergency kits and they also are dispensed individually over the counter and through the medium of vending machines. Where expense is of no moment it is more or less conventional practice to completely invest the rolls in hermetically sealed wrappers. Where expense is a serious item as in the case of low priced kits,

coin operated machines and the like class of merchandising, it is usual to supply unwrapped rolls or to supply them in the form of sections sawed from a peripherally wrapped master roll, which for all practical purposes is no better than the unwrapped practice because it is difiicult, if not impossible, to break the seal and remove the wrapper without considerable handling and soiling of the fully exposed end of the roll.

It is obvious that the dressing or bandage ma- 5 terial cannot profitably be sold at low price if it be protected by a Wrapper within the higher cost range. Therefore, the problem of the instant case is to protect rolled gauze or other dressing material and do it in such way as will not appreciably add to the cost of merchandising the article. In the solution of the problem there is employed a happy compromise between the fully wrapped rolls and the section units of the peripherally wrapped master roll.

The invention in its preferred form is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, forming a part hereof, wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view of a roll of dressing and its protective wrapper in sealed state.

Fig. 2 is a similar View of the same elements in unsealed state.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a modified wrapper.

In the practice of the invention the roll 5 of gauze, or other bandage material, is peripherally wrapped and sealed in a paper wrapper 6, which is sufficiently long to provide a seal breaker, or

flap 1, beyond the point of sealing; and sufficiently wide to provide for crinkled flanges 8 lapping the ends of the roll and serving as distance elements to protect the ends from casual soiling.

The wrapper is sealed through the medium of spot glued areas 9 which are so disposed that the overlapping and underlapping wrapper portions are relatively free or unsecured at their side margins, which are thus permitted to be crimped to the sector-like close folded state of the roll end lapping members or flanges 8.

When it is desired to use some of the dressing, a simple upward pull on the flap or breaker strip 1 will rupture the seal without tearing or otherwise damaging the wrapper so that it cannot again be used. In fact, it is a merit of this invention that the wrapper may be used after the original seal is ruptured, and without the necessity of adhesively bonding it, the tendency of the crimped flanged portions being to hold it to place. However, in the further advancement of this thought, the wrapper may have inherent provisions for securing it in positive manner after the original seal is broken. For example, there is shown in Fig. 3 a tongue [0 designed to be interlocked with slits ll,

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

A package comprising a roll of gauze, a strip of paper of a length exceeding the perimeter of the roll so that its transverse edges are, respectively, in underlapping and overlapping relation when the strip is wound upon the roll, the underlapping portion having spot glued areas in propinquity with its edge so as to be in adherent relation with the overlapping portion substantially only at said edge whereby the overlapping portion may function as a seal breaker without the hazard of tearing or of reducing the area of the wrapper, said strip having a width slightly exceeding that of the roll so as to shroud the edges of the roll, the shrouding provisions cooperating with the overlapping portion to permit repeated use of the wrapper for the life of the roll.

EARLE E. DICKSON. 

